Filled with sardonic wit and blissfully fuzzed-out guitars, Harvey Danger’s debut album Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone is a chef’s kiss representation of all the things that made 90’s alternative so titillating. Sean Nelson’s sneering and detached vocal approach is frankly a match made in heaven alongside Jeff Lin’s overdriven guitars, Aaron Huffman’s bouncing bass lines, and Evan Sult’s helter-skelter percussion. It’s pop alternative rock in a way that only the 90’s could produce.
If you were alive and listening to music in a five year period when this album came out it was basically impossible to avoid the lead single “Flagpole Sitta”. The song is frankly iconic with it’s infectious chorus hook (“I’m not sick but I’m not well / And I’m so hot ’cause I’m in Hell” gives me chills every time) and lyrics that are a nihilistic deconstruction of the vapidity of the modern age. There have been plenty of other bands that defined 90’s alternative rock (Everclear’s So Much For The Afterglow and Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill immediately come to mind), but if you’re looking for a band that wrote an anthem of the era, you don’t have to look much further.
The rest of the album has its peaks and valleys, but don’t make the mistake in thinking Harvey Danger was just a one-hit wonder. “Private Helicopter” and “Carlotta Valdez” have a ton of bite and irreverence, and “Wrecking Ball” takes you on an alt-rock journey that feels fresh as ever.
As an aside– Harvey Danger is featured on the intro to the excellent Channel 4 British sitcom Peep Show featuring comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb. It’s a helluva show and fitting that they chose such a banger of a song to kick things off each episode.
Standout Songs: “Flagpole Sitta”, “Private Helicopter”, “Wrecking Ball”
